


like a flame that lights the gloom

by extemporaneousmusings



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drinking Games, Fluff, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M, Masturbation, R/S Small Gifts 2018, Snowball Fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 17:32:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17084657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extemporaneousmusings/pseuds/extemporaneousmusings
Summary: On Christmas Eve of their seventh year, James and Lily facilitate some realizations for Remus and Sirius. Featuring day drinking, ill-advised piercing procedures, and party games.





	like a flame that lights the gloom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [muse_in_absentia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/muse_in_absentia/gifts).



> I wrote this little fic about Remus and Sirius having a holiday love epiphany. Many thanks to the magical Mrm for beta-ing this for me! 
> 
> p.s. I do not endorse the piercing practices described in this fic

Christmas Eve dawned bright and brutally cold. The fire had gone out in the night, so Remus shivered on his way to the loo, the cold seeping from the flagstones through his thick wool socks. Teeth chattering, he wrapped his dressing gown tight around his torso and tiptoed quickly across the room, his sleepiness fighting against his body’s refusal to be still or move slowly through the chilly room. When he reached the loo he sighed, the weak localized heating charm a relief after the frigid dorm room. Stripping out of his robe and pajamas, Remus turned the shower on and stepped into the scalding spray, hanging his head and letting the water pummel his shoulders and upper back. After a few minutes, once the muscles in his body loosened up a little, stiff from sleep and the cold, he reached for his soap and began methodically washing each of his limbs, humming lightly to himself as he lathered up and rinsed off.

Remus shuffled his feet apart and widened his thighs, soapy hand passing over his balls and penis. He gripped himself, and gave a few considering tugs, smoothing his thumb over his head with each pass. He began to harden immediately, so he leaned his shoulder against the wall of the stall and closed his eyes, letting the sensation of water streaming over his skin, and his hand wrapped firmly around his cock, spread like a blanket of soft, easy pleasure across his body. Unbidden, but unsurprisingly, fleeting images began to dance across his consciousness. A broad back, muscles rippling. A smile, crinkled eyes and softly curved mouth. A tight, round arse—and just as Remus began to wank in earnest the door to the bathroom banged open, and Remus felt a blast of cold air rush over his skin. 

“Moony!!” Sirius exclaimed, voice echoing on the tile. “It’s snowing!!” 

“Sirius!” Remus ground out, reaching behind him to shut off the warm tap. His body was immediately assaulted with an icy deluge and he grunted, before cutting the cold water as well. 

“James and Peter already left to go stake out our spot, so I’m the one who has to get you out of the shower and dressed. The Ravenclaws are still pissed about losing last week and we need to get out and put your new ideas into action. What was the spell you came up with to charm snow tornadoes that can follow a specific target?”

“I can’t have been in here for more than five minutes. Is there really such a rush?” Remus said, reaching out for a towel and cursing when he realized that he’d left it across the room on its hook. 

The towel sailed over the shower curtain, hitting Remus in the face. He grabbed it before it fell onto the wet floor and started to dry himself off. 

“When you started the shower I woke up and noticed that it was snowing. A few of the Ravenclaw first years were already out there, probably some of their scouts. You know I’m concerned that Shacklebolt’s cut a deal with the Hufflepuffs—I saw him talking to Diggory and looking all sneaky outside of the greenhouses a few days ago—I don’t know if we can beat them if they’re together, not as many Gryffindors stayed over break.”

“Pads,” Remus cut in. “Go catch up with Wormy and Prongs. You can help them set up and start stockpiling the snowballs. I’ll be down in just a minute.”

“No that’s ok, I want to talk over strategy with you on the walk down.” 

Remus smiled and grabbed his dressing gown, shrugging it on and stepping out of the shower, walking past Sirius back into the bedroom. Sirius followed, lingering near the door and pestering him with questions about scenarios and spells as Remus pulled on his clothes and stepped into his boots. He shot a lacing charm down and strode over to Sirius, summoning his cloak from across the room and swinging it over his shoulders. 

“Let’s go squash some fucking eagles,” he said, knocking his shoulder against Sirius’s. The other boy let out an elated whoop, and they clattered down the stairs together.  

After a few hours, the Marauders ended up flushed and starving in the Great Hall, shedding layers and piling their plates high. A good number of students had stayed at Hogwarts over the Christmas hols, so the snowball fight had been particularly raucous. In the end, Remus’s clever new spells, along with Sirius’s unbridled enthusiasm, managed to secure a victory for Gryffindor. 

All of the seventh year Gryffindors had stayed in the castle, and they’d decided that Christmas Eve would be spent relaxing and day drinking. Lily had acquiesced after James presented her with an annotated list of regulations and contingency plans. Neither James nor Lily had wanted to use the common room, so they’d agreed to use the Marauders’ dorm room, since the boys couldn’t go up to the girls’ tower. James had spent the week feverishly cleaning the room—Sirius and Remus had a bet on when James and Lily were going to get together over the holidays: Sirius’s money was on the wee hours of Christmas morning, but Remus had gone for New Year’s Eve. 

The girls were leaving the Hall when the Marauders trooped in, and Dorcas had promised to come up early to help Sirius transfigure the beds into sofas. Once they finished breakfast Peter went off to one of the Marauders’ hiding places to retrieve some mulled wine and firewhiskey. McGonagall had gotten in the habit of doing frequent, random sweeps of their room starting in third year, so they’d adapted to storing all of their contraband in secret nooks and crannies across the castle. 

A few hours later Remus and Lily had managed to charm a festive red and gold fire in the fireplace of their tower room, and the beds had been transfigured into roomy, comfortable couches arranged in an arc around the flames. Sirius plopped down next to Remus and nudged him, glancing over to where James and Lily were sitting. Catching sight of them watching, Lily self-consciously scooted a few centimeters further away from him, and turned to conspicuously start a conversation with Dorcas. Sirius snorted and reached over Remus to grab his goblet of wine. Remus held his breath as Sirius pulled away, exhaling once Sirius’s hand was no longer planted firmly on his upper thigh as support. 

“So Alice, you’re not going to see Frank at all tomorrow?” Remus asked, in an effort to distract himself from the warm, aromatic bundle of  _ everything _ that was Sirius, sitting right next to him on the couch. 

“No, the ministry’s worried about Death Eaters wreaking havoc, so even the first year auror trainees have to be on duty tonight and tomorrow. He’s going to come for the Hogsmeade weekend in January, though. At least I’ll get to see him then.”

The rest of the room murmured in sympathetic understanding. James’s parents were both working extra over the holidays in case of any attacks, which is why the Marauders had all decided to stay at school. 

“We’re gonna arrange for Al to spend the night at the Three Broomsticks with him,” Marlene said. “You four can give her some pointers on how to sneak back in on the Monday, yeah?” 

“Definitely.” James replied, glancing over at Lily before turning to Alice. “We’ve got you covered.” 

“Sweet Merlin. Little Alice Timney, all grown up and sneaking out of boarding school to be with her dashing law enforcement officer!” Sirius laughed. 

“Sneaking out for sleepovers is great,” Lily chimed in. 

“Evans you never,” Sirius mock gasped. 

“It does seem awfully out of character,” Remus said. 

Lily laughed, “I did. Summer between fourth and fifth year I’d sneak out all the time to spend the night with some of my muggle girlfriends back home in Surrey. We all pierced each other’s ears one night, my mum noticed at dinner the next day and lost it.” 

“How do muggles pierce ears?” Peter asked, face squinched in imagined pain.

“My friends and I heated up a needle with a lighter, and then just did it. You put a slice of potato behind the earlobe to have something else as a buffer to stick the needle into after it goes through the lobe.” 

“That’s fucking brutal, I love it!” James exclaimed, turning to look at her ears as though he’d never seen them before. He reached out to push her hair back and get a better look, but she just smacked his hands away and levied him with an aggressive glare. 

The conversation continued but Sirius was fixated on the idea of having one’s ears pierced. His mother had pierced ears. Great gaudy hunks of precious stones and metals that undulated around her face and exuded sickening dark magic. Some of the punks in the zines Remus lent him had their ears pierced, with angular bits and bobs, and weird contraptions that Remus told him were called safety pins. He always thought they looked brilliant, but he’d never really considered it for himself, until now. Suddenly his earlobes were tingling. He could feel phantom pinpricks, and they felt  _ good  _ and  _ exciting  _ and he wanted it  _ now.  _

“Lily will you pierce my ears the muggle way?” Sirius blurted out, his impulsivity heighted by the spiced wine that was warming up his body and loosening his tongue. 

“What, right now?” she asked, incredulous. 

“Bugsy?” Sirius said, in response. A house elf appeared with a crack a moment later, blinking and looking around the room, taking in the new arrangement. 

“Yes, Mister Black?” 

“Do you think that the kitchens could spare a couple slices of potato?” 

“Absolutely!” the elf squeaked. She clapped her hands and suddenly two round slices appeared in her knobby fingers. Bugsy presented them to Sirius, who thanked her, and then she disapparated with another loud crack. Sirius hopped off the couch and walked over to Lily, plopping down on the floor in front of her. He handed her the potato slices and summoned two quills, transfiguring them into needles in his palm. 

“Wow, ok. We’re doing this right now.” 

“He won’t leave you alone until you do, so you should just get it over with.” Remus said. 

“True,” Marlene chuckled. “Might as well humor Black, Lils. Then we can get back to drinking.” 

“Do you guys have any plates up here?” Lily asked. Peter nodded and went to grab one off his trunk. He hit it with a quick  _ scourgify _ and then handed it to Lily. She charmed it into a mirror and then pulled out one of the muggle biros she typically used to take notes and put a dot on each of Sirius’s earlobes. 

“Is the placement alright?” 

He inspected his reflection for a moment and then nodded. Lily shot them both with a cleaning charm, took the first needle from him, and slid a potato slice behind his ear. It felt cold and slimy against his skin and he shivered a little at the contact. 

“Don’t move or I’ll fucking stab you in the eye,” Lily hissed, biting her lip with concentration. Sirius exhaled and stilled his body, energy still coursing through him and sparking across his skin, while he tried not to move any muscles. It was a sharp, white hot zing of pain, and then it was over, a dull ache beginning to throb that proved that he had done it, that his ear was pierced.  

“That’s it?” he asked, a little incredulous. 

“Not that bad, right?” Lily replied. 

“Do the other one, now.” Sirius demanded, and Lily smiled and took the other needle. 

Lily removed both potato slices after she pierced his right ear, and then transfigured the needles into small silver hoops. There were two splotches of blood that had seeped across the surface of the potatoes in little red circles, concentrated around the puncture holes. Sirius stared at them for a moment before he flicked his wand and vanished them, following it up by sending a gentle cleaning charm over himself and Lily.

“Ta, Evans,” he said, levering himself up and wandering back over to the sofa he had vacated earlier. Remus folded his legs up to give him some space, and Sirius collapsed onto the cushions and immediately reached for his drink. 

Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice cooed over how good the piercings looked, and James and Remus rolled their eyes in mutual exasperation. 

“D’you like them, Moony?” Sirius asked, turning slightly to face Remus and speaking at a volume that only the two of them could discern. 

“They look great, Pads,” Remus replied, eyes flicking to the bits of metal. “It didn’t hurt?” 

“Honestly, it felt kinda good,” Sirius said. “Maybe that’s just the alcohol talking though, I dunno.” 

“Probably not,” Remus smirked. “We already know how much of a masochist you are. But you should probably tread carefully around Prongs, if you’re getting off on the sensation of Lily touching you.”

Sirius smacked him, relishing in Remus’s squawk of protest, but Remus recovered faster than anticipated and reached out to try and throttle him. Sirius ducked, but Remus’s hands still found his head, tugging harshly at his hair. Sirius exhaled heavily, a little grunt slipping in, and he hoped Remus didn’t realize it was one of pleasure, rather than pain. 

“Anyone up for a good old-fashioned combo of spin the bottle and truth or dare?” Peter asked, voice cutting through all of the separate conversations that had sprung up, and interrupting the scuffle between Remus and Sirius.

“Could be,” Marlene replied, sitting forward. “As long as we agree to some basic terms.” 

“Like what?” James asked. 

“We all take a witches’ oath to tell the truth. I don’t trust you lot not to lie your way out of this, especially Lupin.”

Remus tried to look affronted, but he’d had two cups of wine already, and couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face. “Fair, McKinnon. I’ll agree to that.” 

“Anything else?” Peter asked. 

“Any time you spin the bottle, or it lands on you, you have to take a drink.” 

“Cheers, I’ll drink to that.” Sirius said, brandishing his goblet above his head.

Marlene led everyone through a quick oath, to ensure truthfulness, and then they went about setting up. Alice summoned an empty wine bottle and placed it in the center of the room, and they all dragged cushions and blankets off the couches and arranged themselves in a ring around it. 

“Who wants to go first?” James asked. 

“Why not you, Potter,” Dorcas suggested, and he nodded and reached out to spin the bottle. Lily had introduced the game early on in their Hogwarts years and they still kept to the muggle mechanics, though it was an unspoken understanding that most players cast covert spells to influence the speed and duration of the spins. 

The bottle spun and spun, and eventually landed on Sirius. He sat up a little straighter from where he’d been lounging, shoulder pressing against Remus’s side, and looked excited. 

“So what are my options, Prongs?”

James just sighed. “Is it even worth it? You always choose dare anyway. That’s why I never want to play with you or Remus. It’s hardly any different from our normal activities, there’s just a bottle involved.”

“That’s not true!” Sirius protested. “It’s just the dares are always far more interesting than the truths. I’m an open book, everyone knows what I’m thinking all the time anyway.”

“That is patently false,” Remus snorted into his mulled wine.

“Et tu, Moony?” Sirius said, turning his wounded gaze towards the other boy. Remus just shrugged, unbothered by Sirius’s dramatics. 

“Well clearly you all need to be proven wrong. Truth it is, James!”

Sirius was too caught up in his indignation to notice the covert look that passed between James and Lily.

“Sirius, do you fancy someone in this room?” James said, without missing a beat. 

Remus froze, suddenly afraid to look anywhere except the bottom of his mug. He could tell that Sirius had stilled also, could practically feel the anxiety crackling off him. A long moment passed, full of great, booming silence. 

“Pads, mate. You have to answer the question,” Peter said eventually, shattering the moment, but not the tension Remus could feel crystallizing inside of him.

“Yes, I’m aware, Peter,” Sirius snapped back. Remus finally glanced up at Dorcas and Alice, who he thought would be the safest people to look at. Dorcas was watching Sirius with an expectant expression, and Alice offered him a gentle smile when she caught his eye. Rattled, Remus looked down again.

“Yes.” Sirius said finally, and then he drained the rest of his goblet in one gulp and reached forward to violently wrench the bottle into a spin. It landed on Marlene, and Remus forced himself to try and relax as Sirius began to laugh uproariously when she charmed her features to mimic McGonagall’s and swept around the room, doling out detentions to everyone in an uncanny imitation of her stern, clipped diction. Even Remus was moved to smile as Marlene aggressively rolled her r’s while pronouncing that Sirius was a  _ ridiculous, rude, and utterly unrepentant rapscallion _ . 

His mind was racing though, totally unprepared to process the knowledge that Sirius fancied someone in the room. He needed several hours alone, at least, to even begin to unpack what that meant, how he was supposed to feel. He could sense the control he maintained over his thoughts starting to slip, the possibilities and ramifications and that fucking unquenchable flame of hope all flickering in and out of focus. 

“Moony,” he heard, accompanied by a shove to his shoulder. He looked over at Sirius, and then down at the bottle, which was now pointed directly at him. “It’s you,” Sirius said. 

“Oh, sorry,” Remus said, looking across the circle now at Marlene. “Dare.” 

“You don’t want to hear your options?” she asked.

“No, I’ll take the dare.” 

“Alright,” she said, a devious smile spreading across her face. “Remus, I dare you to kiss Sirius.” 

Peter guffawed loudly, but Marlene’s smile remained fixed, her eyes boring into Remus’s with the challenge. 

“Moony, you don’t have to,” he heard Sirius mutter quietly to his left. Remus turned slowly to face him.

“Is it ok with you? I’ll do it, you know I always follow through on the dares. But I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” 

Sirius just looked at him, gray eyes unreadable, but he shrugged. “Sure. Doesn’t matter to me.” 

And that cut, but Remus didn’t have time to think about it. His brain was already going haywire, his thoughts skittering all over the place in frantic, chaotic jolts. All he had to do was kiss Sirius and spin the bottle, and he could sort through every word, every feeling, every detail of this shit show later. So he did. 

Remus moved so he was kneeling in front of Sirius, shuffling until their faces were only centimeters apart. Sirius hadn’t looked away, or closed his eyes, and Remus felt pinned by his gaze, incapable of doing anything but slowly lean in towards Sirius, the ringing in his ears growing louder the closer he drew. He reached a hand out, desperately trying to keep his fingers from trembling as they slid along Sirius’s jaw and tilted his face up just slightly, so that their lips were in line. Remus pressed their mouths together and felt the soft fullness of Sirius’s lips beneath his. They felt exactly as Remus had imagined, and he didn’t know whether he was lost or found, but after counting to three in his head he pulled away and sat back onto his cushion. Sirius looked shocked and Remus ran a hand over his face before abruptly standing up. 

“Sorry, I’ve just remembered something I need to do. I’ll, uh. I’ll be back in a few,” he blurted out, and then he turned and left the room, rushing down the stairs and through the Common Room until he was out in the chilly corridor, chest heaving. Before he could even begin to gather himself, the portrait swung open and Sirius stumbled out, lurching into Remus. 

“Sorry,” both boys stuttered. Sirius grabbed Remus’s arm to steady himself, and Remus could feel the press of each finger around his forearm, radiating through the thick wool of his jumper. 

“Moony, why did you run?” Sirius muttered, maintaining his grasp on Remus, as if he was worried Remus would bolt again. “Did you—was it that bad, the...the kiss?” His eyes were wide and stormy, and his voice dropped to a pained whisper when he got to the final word of his question.

“It was perfect,” Remus whispered, clenching his eyes shut. He couldn’t bear to look at Sirius right now, it was just too much. “It was exactly how I’d imagined it would be. Fuck.” 

Remus could feel Sirius shaking his head. “But you? Merlin, sorry Moony. I can’t do this like this.” 

Remus took a faltering step away, trying to turn and go. “Fine, Sirius. I’m just going to-”

“No!” Sirius growled, and he hauled Remus back towards him. “Remus that’s not what I meant.”

“What  _ did _ you mean?” Remus asked, finally opening his eyes to watch Sirius frantically patting at his robes with his left hand, the right one still clenching Remus’s arm in a vice-like grip. Finally, Sirius located his wand and barked out a gruff  _ sobrius _ , aiming the wand towards his chest. He pointed the wand at Remus next, and quirked an eyebrow. 

“Okay,” Remus said, spreading his arms out a little and letting Sirius hit him with a sobriety charm. He let out a huff as he felt the spell burning through his bloodstream, but after a moment the sensation faded, and he felt everything slowly coming back into focus around him. 

“Who do you fancy?” Remus asked. There was no escaping this now, they were already in far too deep. 

Sirius exhaled slowly and released Remus, thrusting both hands deep into his pockets. “You, Remus.” 

“But I…” Remus started, but Sirius cut him off before he could get another word out.

“You’ve imagined kissing me?” 

“Yes,” Remus breathed, his eyes fluttering shut again, overcome by the intensity in Sirius’s gaze. 

He felt a hand land on each shoulder, and Sirius shook him gently. 

“Please look at me, Moony,” and Remus inhaled, Sirius’s scent pooling in the back of his throat and spreading out across his tongue, the mulled wine, and the sweat, and the thing that Remus couldn’t describe as anything other than  _ just Sirius _ , even though he’d spend the past two years ruminating on why and how it could possibly smell so fucking good. 

Sirius looked concerned when he opened his eyes. “Remus, is everything alright?”

“Yeah, sorry.” 

“You kinda looked like you needed to hurl, you know, with the heavy breathing and all. Did I fuck up the sobriety charm?” 

“Of course not,” Remus said. “You’ve had that spell perfected for years.” 

“Right, yeah. Just checking.” Sirius muttered, taking a step back and dropping his hands to his sides. Remus felt bereft at the loss of proximity, and somehow without thinking his hands reached out and grabbed Sirius’s. They both looked down at their linked hands in surprise, and then their eyes met again. 

“I fancy you too, Sirius.” He squeezed his hands a little, rubbing his thumbs in circles over Sirius’s knuckles. “I’m sorry I ran.”

“No, don’t be. Everything happened so fast and it was really fucking-”

“A lot,” Remus chuckled weakly, relief and elation and all sorts of things expanding inside of him until it felt like he was floating. He glanced down quickly to make sure that he wasn’t actually levitating.  

“Yeah.” Sirius said, laughing a little as well. “I didn’t think that James would do that to me. He promised to never bring it up.”

“James knew you fancy me?” Remus asked, surprised. 

“We’ve talked about it a few times,” Sirius said, eyes darting away to the side. 

“Oh,” Remus replied, uncertain of what else to say or do, and suddenly aware of the fact that he could feel Sirius’s pulse through his grip on his fingers. “Sorry, was I hurting you?” he asked, releasing Sirius and taking a step back. 

“No. No, Remus…” Sirius started. “Bugger it,” he said, and suddenly he was surging forward and pressing Remus back against the wall, the Fat Lady’s frame digging into his back. Sirius hooked two fingers under his chin and tilted his face up, the pad of his thumb sweeping across Remus’s bottom lip. Before Remus could blink, Sirius had replaced his thumb with his lips. They were slightly parted this time, and after a beat he pulled away, the tip of his tongue flicking out to wet the corner of his mouth. Remus whimpered and chased Sirius’s mouth with his own, and then they were kissing again, with a fierce intensity that flared up in Remus’s core and incinerated every nerve in his body. 

Remus brought one hand up to grip Sirius’s bicep, and sank the other into his hair, tangling his fingers in the long silky strands and scratching his fingernails against Sirius’s scalp. Sirius sighed and brought their hips together. 

“Like that, do you?” Remus asked, and Sirius moaned, pressing himself closer. Remus could feel Sirius hardening against his thigh, and he knew Sirius could feel his own growing erection. Sirius parted his lips, panting a little, and Remus licked into his mouth, their tongues sliding against each other. Remus let out a low, rumbling groan, and felt a smile unfurl against his lips. They continued like that, holding each other tight and breathing each other in, lips moving in unison, and sometimes not, until a cough behind Remus startled them into jumping apart. 

“In or out, boys,” the Fat Lady said, settling back onto her chaise. “But I will not have you groping each other on top of me.” 

Remus coughed into a closed fist and Sirius muttered an aborted apology before grabbing Remus’s arm and leading him down the corridor. When they finally made it down to the Great Hall for dinner the two of them were wearing matching, goofy grins. They slid onto the bench across from Lily and James, and James immediately started laughing. 

“Moony, Padfoot, nice of you to join us. Did you take care of the urgent business you both needed to attend to?”

“Fuck off, Prongs,” Remus said cheerfully. Sirius snorted, but James did not pause in his mirth. Instead he extended an open palm to Lily.

“Time to pay up, Evans.” 

Lily rolled her eyes but dug into her robes and pulled out a few galleons. “Fine, Potter.” She slapped the coins into his hand and turned back to her roast, taking another bite. 

“Wait a second!” Sirius said, narrowing his eyes at the two of them. “What was that for?” 

“Just a little wager between friends,” James demurred, tucking the coins into a pocket. 

“Jesus Christ,” Remus muttered. He reached over and placed his hand on Sirius’s thigh under the table. Sirius seemed to relax at the contact and started spooning some shepherd’s pie onto his plate. Lily caught his eye from across the table and smiled, and Remus couldn’t help himself from smiling back. As Sirius stretched across the table to grab the pitcher of pumpkin juice his collar shifted and James, quick as ever, reached out to pull it down fully. 

“My, my, Moony. Did you get a little peckish before dinner?”

“I’d suggest against pushing it too far, James.” Remus said, voice wry and brooking no room for disagreement. Sirius wrenched himself away from James’s fingers and settled on the bench closer to Remus, hooking his ankle around the other boy’s. 

“James,” Sirius said after taking a few bites of mashed potatoes. “Remember how we all agreed in September that each of us gets two free passes with the dorm room, should we have anyone we want to spend the night with?” 

“It’s Christmas Eve! We all decided to stay here to spend Christmas together.” James protested, hastily pushing his glasses back up his nose and fixing Sirius with a pleading look. 

“The only caveats were to not kick everyone out the night before quidditch matches, or during NEWTS.” 

“Fine!” James groaned, conceding. “But we’re doing a full Marauders Christmas, so when Pete and I get back in the morning the two of you had better be decent, or I swear…” James brandished his spoon at them menacingly. 

“Deal.” Sirius said.

“Merry Christmas, Prongs,” Remus grinned, and nudged Sirius with his elbow before tucking into his turnips.

  
  



End file.
